1. Notification of Job Openings
Here, Thisite appears to be-by far-the leader.
On all four membership sites, many executive jobs are posted directly. In addition, Thisite has a RECONNAISSANCE staff who now combs the Web 24/7 to find and report every new executive-level job opportunity. "Every," of course, cannot be totally achieved. However, a huge proportion of the newly posted jobs is now being reported to Thisite members. The goal is surprisingly close... and nearer every day.
Moreover, Thisite members can choose to be alerted to the newly appearing jobs of their choice daily, weekly, or even hourly.
The other site known for presenting lots of jobs is TheLadders.com. If discovering job opportunities is one of your primary interests, check out both of these sites. You'll easily find someone who's using both. Get an objective up- to-date comparison.
2. Resume / Profile in a Searchable Database
This service category is continually evolving. All membership sites should present your resume-or at least a profile-where it can easily be found by interested recruiters and employers. All four of the sites offer some form of this service. Here, too, you'll want to ask around to get first hand observations and recommendations.
Thisite has always been unique in this area because of its deep concern for maintaining the security of your data, while also publicizing it. Therefore, we maintain two separate databases. One contains members' identity -revealed resumes. These can onlybe accessed by the 1,800 or so members of the approximately 500 search firms "honored" in this book (Appendix II) and on Thisite. These are the recruiters you're most eager to reach. The second database holds members' identity-concealed resumes. Those are accessible to anyone on the Internet, including the vast army of headhunters who are not "This-Honored." With extreme luck, any of the ID-concealed resumes may even be show up in Google searches. Inquiries sparked by ID-Concealed resumes are routed through Thisite's computer. The member responds if interested. Or stays concealed if not.
Here's an important factor to consider in evaluating the "makes-you-findable" feature of any site: Does it charge recruiters and employers to look for you in its database? Execunet and Netshare do. TheLadders and Thisite-wanting no barrier to your being "found"-do not charge.
3. Opportunity to Network with Other Members
If you wish to meet and network with other "in-transition" executives face-to- face, NetShare and ExecuNet are clearly your best choices. Both offer local meetings in quite a number of cities. Besides opportunity to network, these events also include a featured speaker-often the author of a book on jobhunting or a local professional resume writer. These sites also have bulletin boards that facilitate member postings on a wide range of topics.
Thisite has a different approach. Members can quickly search the identity- concealedresumes of many thousands of our members and issue automated "Invitations to Network" to those with appropriate backgrounds and interests. It's easy to assemble a "team" of mutually helpful friends and associates located across the country and even around the world. Some of those "friends in need" ultimately become "friends indeed."
Business and personal relationships can be a very valuable and long-term byproduct of membership on three of these sites. TheLadders, however, does not currently appear to have any channel for member interaction. Again, ask around for user comments.
4. Job-Hunting Advice and Job Market Commentary
As for "Advice," I send Thisite members two emails weekly. One is a memo of my latest tips on job-hunting. The other is on how to gain recognition, promotion, and higher compensation when you're currently employed. Although I provide lots of new and additional material to Thisite members, none is ever circulated outside the site to non-members. Also, in Thisite UNIVERSITY on the site I supplement this book with 15 "advanced courses."
The other three services all circulate their emailed publications to both members and non-members. Execunet is by far the most prolific. Periodically it also floats survey questionnaires to various segments of the executive employment market and sends the results to members, non-members, recruiters, employers and the media. TheLadders, incidentally, sends an amusing cartoon with its widely circulated weekly emails.
5. Methods to Identify and Interact with Recruiters
This function is central to Thisite. I want you to become known to the top retainer-compensated search firms.
This-Honored Recruiters
From the earliest days of and ofThisite.com, I've always identified "This-Honored" search firms based on (1) fine reputations and (2) doing 100% of their searches "on retainer" (employers must pay to receive candidates/resumes) and not "on contingency" (no payment unless hiring occurs). Because of their different business models, "100% retainer" recruiters virtually never swap and widely "float" resumes, whereas a great many contingency recruiters routinely do so.
Today, the "This-Honored" list is the most extensive and rigorously maintained authority in its field. Approximately 500 top firms (selected from an estimated 18,000 in the U.S. and Canada) are "This-Honored." They are estimated to do over 85% of all searches done by firms that do 100% of their searches on retainer.
Email My Resume
Thisite Members enjoy a unique computerized feature, EMAIL MY RESUME. It automatically (1) emails their resume to their selectionof several hundred This-Honored firms (2) sends from the member's personal email address (not Thisite's), (3) avoids their service provider's restrictions on multiple emailing, and (4) formats each submission as the recipient search firm demands (attachment or body-of-the-email).
Easy Personalized Direct Mail and Links to Websites
Thisite's members who wish to do so can download the entire recruiter database, including names and titles of prominent firm members at each of every This-Honored firm's locations. If you wish, it's easy to do a mail merge and distribute an elegant personalized on-paper campaign to these firms.
There's also a convenient interactive list of links to the Web sites of all these firms. These days, it's possible to input resumes directly into the databases of quite a number of This-Honored search firms by visiting their sites.
Recruiter Interaction: Other Membership Sites
If you and I could sit down together, we could take the time to discuss specifically the different ways recruiter description and contacting are handled on all the paid membership sites.
Sadly, I've been disappointed with virtually every site's recruiter-contact function. Either there's no distinction between retainer and contingency firms, or the labeling is grossly inaccurate, or every headhunter that (1) posts jobs on the site or (2) buys access to the site's resumes is said to be prestigious. No standards even remotely close to Thisite's are applied. Emphasis is often on reaching large numbers of recruiters. Should you purchase the emailing of your resume to 30,000 headhunters? I hope you're far too savvy to do that!
